God’s Hero
By Richard Wurmbrand
Dear friends,
Violence is one of the chief gods of our day. A great portion of television programming is devoted to the present fighting among nations, murder, robbery, and rape in the large cities, and television dramas with violence as their theme. Murder and fighting are before us constantly.
Stress is placed upon carrying a gun for self-defense, or learning different forms of fighting so that the individual can protect himself. Some Christian people train their sons in various forms of self-defense. It may be better for the child to teach him to trust in the Lord than how to injure an opponent. Why should we teach our children to be violent when this is not the way of the Lord?
In the United States, as well as in some other countries, the violent man is glorified. He is the masculine hero who carries a machine gun in each hand or is expert in karate. He is not God’s hero.
God’s Hero is the Lord Jesus Christ. Of all men who have lived on the earth the Lord Jesus was the strongest in character, the most courageous. We should imitate Him in every aspect of His Person, not the reckless, wild, lustful adamic man of violence.
Whoever admires and seeks to imitate the violent adamic man is eating food offered to idols. The demons are gratified when human beings injure and kill each other.
Those who live by violence shall die by violence.
God’s saints are not violent people and they do not admire or practice violence.
It used to be that people would go to some form of entertainment once a month, or sometimes once a week. Now people are entertained by the television several hours a day. This is neither wholesome nor godly.
We do not need this much entertainment! The believer will never make a success of the Christian discipleship until he spends time each day in prayer, in waiting on the Lord, in meditating in the Scriptures. Religious devotion of this kind leaves little time for watching the antics of Satan and his demons.
Time spent in front of the television set is not only unprofitable, it is harmful—destructive of spiritual development. We have been commanded to not be conformed to the present world. The television set conforms us to the present world. We have been exhorted to make good use of our time. Watching television is not time occupied with building the Kingdom of God.
The five demon gods, lust, violence, drunkenness and revelry, covetousness, and witchcraft compose the great bulk of television programming. Those who occupy a portion of each day with television watching are partaking of these five gods and shall suffer accordingly.
The Christian family should never permit their children to watch the secular television… There are alternatives to television, such as indoor games, outdoor games, reading, puzzles, filmstrips, and video cassettes. There are a multitude of religious filmstrips and video cassettes that are useful for acquainting children with Christian values…
To sit the child in front of the secular television programs is to fill him or her with Satan’s values. Is this what we want?
If we deliver our children to Satan in this manner they will turn against us when they are older and hand us over to the authorities for being religious fanatics. The day of persecution is at hand!
To watch the secular television programs, even the news, can be to partake of food offered to demons if we do not continue to be diligent in prayer. We know the news is biased in favor of non-Christian values and we must keep this in the forefront of our mind.
If we want to know what really is going on in the world we need to spend an hour in prayer each day.
To party is to abandon one’s self to "fun." It is normal for children to have fun and play games. Children grow and learn about life and their surroundings while they are playing games.
The adamic believer, even though an adult in age, is still a child in that every once in a while he must have "fun." He must let his spiritual guard down, throw caution to the winds, and "enjoy himself." This is an excellent time for the enemy of his soul to cause him to say or do something harmful to the Kingdom of God.
Christians often do not understand the difference between fun and joy. Fun is a somewhat frantic exercise of the fleshly nature. Fun is possible only as long as the person’s circumstances are pleasing. One does not have fun while sick or in prison.
Joy, on the other hand, is a fruit of the Spirit of God. Joy is a deeply settled peace and sense of well-being. The saint has deep joy that flourishes in good times and bad, when at liberty or in prison, when in good health or sick, when prospects are good or dreadful. The further we walk with the Lord the stronger and more consistent our joy becomes.
The Lord said that He gives us of His joy.
These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full. (John 15:11)
Can you imagine the Lord saying, "that my fun might remain in you"? Do you believe the Lord Jesus had much fun while He was on the earth? Therefore we see there is an important difference between fun and joy. Fun is of the flesh. Joy is of the Lord.
The Kingdom of God is righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit of God.
Christians who love to "party," who believe that unless they are having fun they are not experiencing life as they should, are still of the first man, Adam. God in His love will soon chasten them severely so that Adam will be crucified and the new creation, the joyful creation, will come forth.
When we think of Pastor Richard Wurmbrand in a straitjacket, in solitary confinement thirty feet below ground in a Communist prison in Bucharest, gagged to muffle his insane howlings, in a cell so cold his pet spider froze to death, we find it difficult to sympathize with Christian adults or young people who did not have fun during their Saturday-night party (Richard Wurmbrand, With God in Solitary Confinement )
Another problem is that Christian people do not understand the difference between a party and Christian fellowship. It is a simple matter to tell the difference. If it is easy and compatible with what is going on to pray, to speak of the Lord, to prophesy, to build up one another in the faith, then one is having fellowship. These behaviors are out of place at a party. One is much more likely to hear jesting and gossip than words that build us up in the faith.
The demons are a merry group and love to dance and sing, as we can notice on the friezes on the temples in India. They love parties because they then can infiltrate the fleshly antics of unguarded believers.
To love parties is to love food sacrificed to idols.
Profanity is very common in our day…. There is now a rapidly increasing appearance of filthy language—especially in the Hollywood sentations.
A Christian would never employ profanity or obscene language if he could see the demon that was in his mouth. The demon world speaks constantly in profanities, obscenities—every unclean form of speech available. And in every language!
When people are filled with rage or fear they often take the Lord’s name in vain or spew out obscenities. The demons find gratification in such behavior… No Christian ever at any time is to speak profanely or in an obscene manner. To do so is to eat at the table of demons.
The world is a place of pain and dread. God has given to us His Holy Spirit to encourage and strengthen us so we can make our way through the world without succumbing to worry or discouragement.
People drink alcohol in order to escape momentarily from the pain and dread of life—and no doubt for other reasons. The Christian believer should never drink alcohol because it conflicts with the ministries, gifts, and movements of the Holy Spirit. We have been in a home group meeting where people had partaken of a little wine with their meal. The interference with the Holy Spirit was obvious.
We are aware that in many countries the use of wine and beer does not have the same stigma among Christians as is true of the United States.
The Nazirite vow, such as that resting on Samson (Judges 13:5), suggests that separation to God includes abstinence from alcohol. The Israelites could enjoy all the fruit of the vine, but not the Nazarite. He was separated to God for God’s special purposes.
Every Christian who desires to live the victorious life should regard himself or herself as a "Nazirite." The conquering Christian does not look for fleshly activities he can practice and yet remain a Christian. Rather, he is continually seeking to discover what he can do to improve his relationship to the Lord.
The Christian is a soldier, a spiritual warrior. His adversary the devil never rests. The Christian must keep all of his faculties finely honed, perpetually ready to counter the devices of Satan. The conquering Christian does not consider what other believers may do but is intent on serving the Lord to the utmost of his ability.
It is claimed that alcohol destroys brain cells. The Christian never, never does anything that would defile his or her body because it is the temple of the Holy Spirit.
Drunkenness, the impairment of the faculties through the use of alcohol, is one of the most common manifestations of demonic gratification in the world of today. It is food offered to idols.
Drugs also are food offered to idols. Like alcohol, people use drugs to gain some relief from the pain and dread of life on the earth. Drugs have been used historically in many—perhaps all—countries. The use of drugs is a major social concern of our day.
People employ drugs to gain entrance to the spirit realm, the realm of demons. Materialism does not satisfy the human personality and so the "scientific," "educated," "sophisticated" citizens of the large nations are turning to the occult for satisfaction. Drugs are one way of moving from the material to the spirit world.
There is evidence that drugs do permanent injury to the brain. Some authorities have stated that schizophrenia, for example, may result from drug use. It is obvious that the individual is disabled mentally, at least temporarily.
The victorious, obedient saint seeks always to be like his Lord. He is not, as we said previously, attempting to determine what he can do and still be a "Christian." He is not seeing how close he can walk to the Lake of Fire without toppling in.
People smoke or chew tobacco because they are not content with their body and their circumstances. They must add to their personality in order to be approved, to quiet their nerves, or for some other reason…
The scientific research that has been conducted relative to cigarette smoking has proved beyond all doubt that smoking produces a number of serious, debilitating ailments. Also, pipe smoking has been associated with cancer of the mouth.
The Scripture informs us that God will destroy the person who deliberately injures his or her own body with alcohol, drugs, or cigarettes.
Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are. (I Corinthians 3:16,17)
Alcohol, drugs, and cigarettes defile the temple of God. They are foods offered to idols. The demons derive satisfaction when they can prevail on a human being to partake of them.
Acquiring money. The Scriptures reveal clearly, from Balaam to Ananias and Sapphira, that the love of money is the root of all evil.
For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. (I Timothy 6:10)
The numerous sins and excesses of the several "civilized" nations of our day have their root in the love of money. Most of the crime is caused by the desire to acquire money. The professions, from school-teaching to law to medicine, are often not pursued with the idea of helping people but to get more money from them.
Money is the God of Western civilization. The citizens of the large nations could not conceive of a world without money. Everything that is done is carried through in terms of money, with very little exception.
Wars are fought because of money. Much of the world is naked and starving because those with a surplus love money. The governments govern unjustly because of the love of money. People look to money to bring them love, joy, and peace when these treasures can come only from God.
No person can serve God and money. We are forced to choose between the two. We can gain our security, pleasure, and achievement through the use of money or through prayer and obedience to God. This is one of the basic decisions we make in life.
The pursuit of more money than is needed for our welfare and the welfare of those for whom we are responsible is a food offered to idols. The wise believer will ask God to remove this demon-God from him. He will be infinitely happier as soon as he is totally delivered from the love and worship of money.
The love of luxury. A person’s life does not consist in the abundance of things he possesses, the Lord informed us. Yet, in the large nations of Western civilization, an abundance of material comforts is considered not only to be desirable but to be essential to the proper care and comfort of the believer.
In fact, we are being told lately that material prosperity is the sign of God’s blessing.
Your’s in Christ,
Richard Wurmbrand
Dear friends,
Violence is one of the chief gods of our day. A great portion of television programming is devoted to the present fighting among nations, murder, robbery, and rape in the large cities, and television dramas with violence as their theme. Murder and fighting are before us constantly.
Stress is placed upon carrying a gun for self-defense, or learning different forms of fighting so that the individual can protect himself. Some Christian people train their sons in various forms of self-defense. It may be better for the child to teach him to trust in the Lord than how to injure an opponent. Why should we teach our children to be violent when this is not the way of the Lord?
In the United States, as well as in some other countries, the violent man is glorified. He is the masculine hero who carries a machine gun in each hand or is expert in karate. He is not God’s hero.
God’s Hero is the Lord Jesus Christ. Of all men who have lived on the earth the Lord Jesus was the strongest in character, the most courageous. We should imitate Him in every aspect of His Person, not the reckless, wild, lustful adamic man of violence.
Whoever admires and seeks to imitate the violent adamic man is eating food offered to idols. The demons are gratified when human beings injure and kill each other.
Those who live by violence shall die by violence.
God’s saints are not violent people and they do not admire or practice violence.
It used to be that people would go to some form of entertainment once a month, or sometimes once a week. Now people are entertained by the television several hours a day. This is neither wholesome nor godly.
We do not need this much entertainment! The believer will never make a success of the Christian discipleship until he spends time each day in prayer, in waiting on the Lord, in meditating in the Scriptures. Religious devotion of this kind leaves little time for watching the antics of Satan and his demons.
Time spent in front of the television set is not only unprofitable, it is harmful—destructive of spiritual development. We have been commanded to not be conformed to the present world. The television set conforms us to the present world. We have been exhorted to make good use of our time. Watching television is not time occupied with building the Kingdom of God.
The five demon gods, lust, violence, drunkenness and revelry, covetousness, and witchcraft compose the great bulk of television programming. Those who occupy a portion of each day with television watching are partaking of these five gods and shall suffer accordingly.
The Christian family should never permit their children to watch the secular television… There are alternatives to television, such as indoor games, outdoor games, reading, puzzles, filmstrips, and video cassettes. There are a multitude of religious filmstrips and video cassettes that are useful for acquainting children with Christian values…
To sit the child in front of the secular television programs is to fill him or her with Satan’s values. Is this what we want?
If we deliver our children to Satan in this manner they will turn against us when they are older and hand us over to the authorities for being religious fanatics. The day of persecution is at hand!
To watch the secular television programs, even the news, can be to partake of food offered to demons if we do not continue to be diligent in prayer. We know the news is biased in favor of non-Christian values and we must keep this in the forefront of our mind.
If we want to know what really is going on in the world we need to spend an hour in prayer each day.
To party is to abandon one’s self to "fun." It is normal for children to have fun and play games. Children grow and learn about life and their surroundings while they are playing games.
The adamic believer, even though an adult in age, is still a child in that every once in a while he must have "fun." He must let his spiritual guard down, throw caution to the winds, and "enjoy himself." This is an excellent time for the enemy of his soul to cause him to say or do something harmful to the Kingdom of God.
Christians often do not understand the difference between fun and joy. Fun is a somewhat frantic exercise of the fleshly nature. Fun is possible only as long as the person’s circumstances are pleasing. One does not have fun while sick or in prison.
Joy, on the other hand, is a fruit of the Spirit of God. Joy is a deeply settled peace and sense of well-being. The saint has deep joy that flourishes in good times and bad, when at liberty or in prison, when in good health or sick, when prospects are good or dreadful. The further we walk with the Lord the stronger and more consistent our joy becomes.
The Lord said that He gives us of His joy.
These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full. (John 15:11)
Can you imagine the Lord saying, "that my fun might remain in you"? Do you believe the Lord Jesus had much fun while He was on the earth? Therefore we see there is an important difference between fun and joy. Fun is of the flesh. Joy is of the Lord.
The Kingdom of God is righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit of God.
Christians who love to "party," who believe that unless they are having fun they are not experiencing life as they should, are still of the first man, Adam. God in His love will soon chasten them severely so that Adam will be crucified and the new creation, the joyful creation, will come forth.
When we think of Pastor Richard Wurmbrand in a straitjacket, in solitary confinement thirty feet below ground in a Communist prison in Bucharest, gagged to muffle his insane howlings, in a cell so cold his pet spider froze to death, we find it difficult to sympathize with Christian adults or young people who did not have fun during their Saturday-night party (Richard Wurmbrand, With God in Solitary Confinement )
Another problem is that Christian people do not understand the difference between a party and Christian fellowship. It is a simple matter to tell the difference. If it is easy and compatible with what is going on to pray, to speak of the Lord, to prophesy, to build up one another in the faith, then one is having fellowship. These behaviors are out of place at a party. One is much more likely to hear jesting and gossip than words that build us up in the faith.
The demons are a merry group and love to dance and sing, as we can notice on the friezes on the temples in India. They love parties because they then can infiltrate the fleshly antics of unguarded believers.
To love parties is to love food sacrificed to idols.
Profanity is very common in our day…. There is now a rapidly increasing appearance of filthy language—especially in the Hollywood sentations.
A Christian would never employ profanity or obscene language if he could see the demon that was in his mouth. The demon world speaks constantly in profanities, obscenities—every unclean form of speech available. And in every language!
When people are filled with rage or fear they often take the Lord’s name in vain or spew out obscenities. The demons find gratification in such behavior… No Christian ever at any time is to speak profanely or in an obscene manner. To do so is to eat at the table of demons.
The world is a place of pain and dread. God has given to us His Holy Spirit to encourage and strengthen us so we can make our way through the world without succumbing to worry or discouragement.
People drink alcohol in order to escape momentarily from the pain and dread of life—and no doubt for other reasons. The Christian believer should never drink alcohol because it conflicts with the ministries, gifts, and movements of the Holy Spirit. We have been in a home group meeting where people had partaken of a little wine with their meal. The interference with the Holy Spirit was obvious.
We are aware that in many countries the use of wine and beer does not have the same stigma among Christians as is true of the United States.
The Nazirite vow, such as that resting on Samson (Judges 13:5), suggests that separation to God includes abstinence from alcohol. The Israelites could enjoy all the fruit of the vine, but not the Nazarite. He was separated to God for God’s special purposes.
Every Christian who desires to live the victorious life should regard himself or herself as a "Nazirite." The conquering Christian does not look for fleshly activities he can practice and yet remain a Christian. Rather, he is continually seeking to discover what he can do to improve his relationship to the Lord.
The Christian is a soldier, a spiritual warrior. His adversary the devil never rests. The Christian must keep all of his faculties finely honed, perpetually ready to counter the devices of Satan. The conquering Christian does not consider what other believers may do but is intent on serving the Lord to the utmost of his ability.
It is claimed that alcohol destroys brain cells. The Christian never, never does anything that would defile his or her body because it is the temple of the Holy Spirit.
Drunkenness, the impairment of the faculties through the use of alcohol, is one of the most common manifestations of demonic gratification in the world of today. It is food offered to idols.
Drugs also are food offered to idols. Like alcohol, people use drugs to gain some relief from the pain and dread of life on the earth. Drugs have been used historically in many—perhaps all—countries. The use of drugs is a major social concern of our day.
People employ drugs to gain entrance to the spirit realm, the realm of demons. Materialism does not satisfy the human personality and so the "scientific," "educated," "sophisticated" citizens of the large nations are turning to the occult for satisfaction. Drugs are one way of moving from the material to the spirit world.
There is evidence that drugs do permanent injury to the brain. Some authorities have stated that schizophrenia, for example, may result from drug use. It is obvious that the individual is disabled mentally, at least temporarily.
The victorious, obedient saint seeks always to be like his Lord. He is not, as we said previously, attempting to determine what he can do and still be a "Christian." He is not seeing how close he can walk to the Lake of Fire without toppling in.
People smoke or chew tobacco because they are not content with their body and their circumstances. They must add to their personality in order to be approved, to quiet their nerves, or for some other reason…
The scientific research that has been conducted relative to cigarette smoking has proved beyond all doubt that smoking produces a number of serious, debilitating ailments. Also, pipe smoking has been associated with cancer of the mouth.
The Scripture informs us that God will destroy the person who deliberately injures his or her own body with alcohol, drugs, or cigarettes.
Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are. (I Corinthians 3:16,17)
Alcohol, drugs, and cigarettes defile the temple of God. They are foods offered to idols. The demons derive satisfaction when they can prevail on a human being to partake of them.
Acquiring money. The Scriptures reveal clearly, from Balaam to Ananias and Sapphira, that the love of money is the root of all evil.
For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. (I Timothy 6:10)
The numerous sins and excesses of the several "civilized" nations of our day have their root in the love of money. Most of the crime is caused by the desire to acquire money. The professions, from school-teaching to law to medicine, are often not pursued with the idea of helping people but to get more money from them.
Money is the God of Western civilization. The citizens of the large nations could not conceive of a world without money. Everything that is done is carried through in terms of money, with very little exception.
Wars are fought because of money. Much of the world is naked and starving because those with a surplus love money. The governments govern unjustly because of the love of money. People look to money to bring them love, joy, and peace when these treasures can come only from God.
No person can serve God and money. We are forced to choose between the two. We can gain our security, pleasure, and achievement through the use of money or through prayer and obedience to God. This is one of the basic decisions we make in life.
The pursuit of more money than is needed for our welfare and the welfare of those for whom we are responsible is a food offered to idols. The wise believer will ask God to remove this demon-God from him. He will be infinitely happier as soon as he is totally delivered from the love and worship of money.
The love of luxury. A person’s life does not consist in the abundance of things he possesses, the Lord informed us. Yet, in the large nations of Western civilization, an abundance of material comforts is considered not only to be desirable but to be essential to the proper care and comfort of the believer.
In fact, we are being told lately that material prosperity is the sign of God’s blessing.
Your’s in Christ,
Richard Wurmbrand
Labels: Charity, God, Richard Wurmbrand
Posted by Dominique Péladeau for the Rev. Radu Roscanu | 11:55 AM
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